The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

April 20, 2014

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!” Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” Then they remembered his words.

When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

November 3, 2013

This is the Emergency Blogging System. It has been activated because Steve forgot to tell you this last night. This is not a drill – drills go Husky-Husky-Husky-Husky.

For those of you in the US (and not in those parts that don’t observe Daylight Saving), Daylight Saving Time ended at 2 am local time. If you have a WordPress blog (whether it is on WordPress.com or it is a WordPress stand-alone blog), and you had the time changed for Daylight Savings, you need to change it back to Standard Time (Central UTC -6, Mountain UTC -7, Eastern UTC -5, Pacific UTC -8, and check your clock for other locales). To do so, go into your wp-admin panel, select “Settings”, and under the “General Settings” page that pops up, select the right time zone. Don’t forget to hit “save” when you’re done.

Again, this is not a test. Had this been a test, you wouldn’t have been given official news, instructions or information. This concludes this broadcast of the Emergency Blogging System.

October 2, 2013

You didn’t hear about it here because I was MIA in May, but earlier this year, Owen and Jed “celebrated” Boots and Sabers’ 10-year blogiversary by shutting it down. I know I’m spitting into the wind this late, but dammit, blogfather, the Cheddarsphere needs you a hell of a lot more than it needs me.

Meanwhile, Ed Morrissey vows to make the next 10 years of blogging as fun as his first 10. Fair winds and following seas, Captain.

September 27, 2012

All good things must come to an end, and thus No Runny Eggs will soon be no more (unless Shoebox wants to continue it). I’m already an exile for saying, just like John Fuqua never touched the ball, M.J. Jennings never had sole possession of the last pass Monday night (though the touchdown should not have counted due to offensive pass interference). It’s time to prepare for the likelyhood that we’ll get ObamiNation 2.0, which will look far more like East Germany than West (and that’s if we’re lucky).

Egg out.

Comments Off on Closing time

June 14, 2012

Once again, I’ve been spending far too much time on Twitter lately. Since I’ll be at Right Online tomorrow and Saturday, I figured I best get back in the groove of blogging. What better way than the infamous Back-handed Smashes of Justice:

Governor Scott Walker, Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, Senators Scott Fitzgerald and Terry Moulton, and Assemblyman/Senator-elect Jerry Petrowski (standing in for the retired Pam Galloway) easily beat back their recall challengers in the biggest non-Presidential election in Wisconsin’s history. Unfortunately, the Democrats in the city of Racine gave the rest of the county a true raspberry of a going-away “present” by giving John Lehman his revenge against Van Wanggaard, and in the process gave Senate Democrat leader Mark Miller control of an empty chamber for less than 7 months.

Once again, Walker held out an olive branch (or should that be a brat?) despite the DPW still holding out hope that the incredibly-biased Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office (controlled by Democrats, with a majority of the staff signing Recall Walker petitions) will indict their ham sandwich. Given all that would do is put Kleefisch in the governor’s mansion, and she is about as popular as he is, I somehow doubt that’s going to happen.

Speaking of the recall, President Obama decided to play hopscotch over Wisconsin, choosing instead to attend 6 fundraisers in the greater Twin Cities and Chicago areas the Friday before the election. I can neither confirm nor deny that Obama skipped over Wisconsin because there wasn’t any money in it for him.

Speaking of money, the MacIver Institute tracked over $23.5 million in reportable expenditures by Big Labor in their 1-for-6 performance. That’s $23.5 million that won’t be going into Team SCOAMF, and with their failure, it’s also not leveragable, even if the unionistas and Obama were still on money-sharing terms.

In economic news, it’s almost all bad, despite Teh SCOAMF’s since-expired claim that in the ObamiNation, the private sector was “doing fine”. The “highlights” – unemployment up to 8.2% in May, 69,000 jobs created in May (with April’s job creation revised downward to 77,000), 1st-quarter real GDP growth slashed to 1.9%, corporate profits posting their worst quarter in 3 years last quarter, over 19 million Americans out of work who want a job, consumer confidence diving. It’s only against the basket case of the EU that things are “fine”.

Oh yes, the Europeans. Greece can’t form a government (and if they do, they’ll start repudiating debt). Spain received, a day after the IMF said they needed a $50 billion injection to save the banks, a $125 billion injection to save the banks. The first act of the Socialists in France was to cancel a planned rise in the retirement age from 60…to 62. Did I mention that the “austerity” wasn’t exactly austerity?

The Brewers are playing down to their competition, getting whipped by the worst teams in baseball, yet somehow holding their own against the best. Unfortuantely, it’s more the former than the latter, and since June 1 went by with the Brewers under .500, we’re waiting for Packers’ training camp. Boo stale beer.

June 13, 2012

In the science of thermodynamics we learn that as objects are cooled they shrink, as they are heated, they expand. I remember enough about high school physics to tell you that the reason for this is that as atoms are heated, they get excited, move vibrate more and the item expands. The opposite effect occurs when the atoms are cooled.

At this point I must warn you that if you are squeamish about subject matter, you may want to skip a few paragraphs as I am known for being perfectly willing to discuss and have viewed, certain body parts that may not be considered “civil” discussion. I’ll point out where to rejoin us if you skip ahead.

Most males, beyond a certain age, are intimately familiar with the effects of thermal expansion. Drop a bunch of teenage males into a cold pool and you will hear a noticeable heightening in their voice tones as thermal expansion, or in this case retraction, works on their genitals. Drop a bunch of 20+ year old guys into the same cold pool and not only will you hear their voices move up in range but you will hear these voices explaining to the other males how they are really much larger than the slight bump in their swimsuits would suggest. They will argue that the cold water is having an enormous impact on them. They will further argue that under normal circumstances, they are much more impressive. OK, if you skipped that last paragraph, you can return now. Last Friday during a press conference, President Obama said,

“The private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government. “

As a bit of an aside, for any of you that believe that his was just another of Obama’s “Biden moments” because he didn’t work from a teleprompter, you’re wrong. Obama said clearly what he wanted to say. The proof? Listen to Harry Reid from October of last year…same line. This wasn’t a slip, this comes from Obama’s Socialist belief that government is the source of all economic good:

OK, back to topic…

Obama’s statement received an immediate reaction of incredulity from everyone not living in Obama’s big government bubble, and rightly so. Since then, Obama and his surrogates have been attempting to explain, deflect and walk back the statement.

White House Press Secretary, Jay Carney, took the media to task for asking about Obama’s statement telling them that they should “do your jobs and report on contexts.” This was a follow up to David Axelrod, who traveled the weekend talk show circuit, using the same “context” explanation. Further, he argued that voters knew what the President meant and wouldn’t be sucked in by the Republican’s misrepresentation.

On Wednesday, James Carville basically told the Obama campaign to quit telling people how much he’s done for the economy…they don’t believe it!

Is it just me or do voices of Carney, Axelrod and Carville all sound like they’ve had a dip in cold water?

Meanwhile, like the 20 something standing in a cold pool, Obama continues to explain to us that it’s not really him, it’s the environment around him that makes him look small and ineffective. Using terms like “headwinds,” Obama blames everything including Buuuuuush, Japan, Europe, Congress and others for his inability to fix the economy.

Today, Reuters/Ipsos shows Obama and Romney in a statistical dead heat among registered voters (likely a Romney lead of likely voters for a variety of reasons) in a poll that was taken largely after the Obama statement. The poll also shows Romney preferred over Obama on economic issues.

Also today, Rasmussen has a poll that shows Romney up 3 among likely voters in Wisconsin. This is the latest poll that shows Romney tied or ahead in virtually every battleground state with momentum on his side in each case.

Obama and his spokespeople can continue to believe that the President should not be held accountable for the mess our economy has become. They can continue to believe that they will be able to fool some of the people all of the time. In fact, they may be able to do that….with some people. But, they won’t fool all of the people. In fact, it looks like fewer and fewer people are being fooled by Obama’s litany of excuses. It looks to me that despite his protests, Obama’s shrinkage is clearly visible. It’s time for him to get out of the deep end before he does himself and us any permanent damage.

April 8, 2012

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!” Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’” Then they remembered his words.

When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

March 7, 2012

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been doing entirely too much Tweeting lately. While that’s fine for things that take 140 characters or less, there’s a few items on the old radar screen that take a few more than that. Let’s roll back into proper blogging form, shall we?

Two long-time fixtures on their NFL teams, Heinz Ward and Peyton Manning, have been cut by, respectively, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Indianapolis Colts due to their reduced level of performance no longer meeting the inflated salaries. I’m steeling myself for the day, just before training camp, the Packers do the same to Donald Driver.

Staying on sports, Ryan Braun found the one arbitrator in America who bought his sorry ass of an excuse that because the person who collected his sample didn’t want it sitting unguarded in some FedEx Office (nee Kinko’s) back room over the weekend, he shouldn’t face any consequences for having artificial testosterone in his system. The Unioncrats are looking for a way to get said arbitrator to move to Wisconsin.

Dane County Lawgiver-In-Black, Recall Walker signer (on a petition circulated by his wife), and employer of a longtime Kathleen Falk operative (as his campaign manager in a one-person race) David Flanagan issued a “temporary” injunction halting implementation of Wisconsin’s voter ID law, just in time to keep any potential write-in candidate from ousting him, saying that vote fraud is rare. To adopt the lieberal verbiage, if it stops just one fraudulent vote from being cast, it’s worth it.

Michelle Malkin simply destroys the false claims of a WarOnWymyn™ waged by the GOP by offering up just a small sample of what was hurled at her. It’s far worse than anything Rush Limbaugh hurled at the professional femme-a-gogue who wants to sever the Catholic church from its stance on contraceptives.

It’s a sad day in the naval aviation world – Neptunus Lex died in a crash of an F-21 Kfir yesterday. Fair winds, and unless you’re conducting flight ops, following seas, Lex.

Now that Mitt Romney has all-but-sewn up the official coronation of the 2012 Republican nomination, which he earned by SuperDuperTuesday 2008 (and thus ensuring that PlaceboCare and the war on the “rich” will continue unabated for the next 4-8 years), the battle for the 2016 Republican nomination (unless you believe that the innovator of PlaceboCare will knock off the national implementer of same) takes center stage. Of course, the predictable calls for that to be settled by both Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich dropping out now are out there, thus making Wisconsin’s primary completely worthless as it has been my entire adult life.

First, Obama Inc. told the Catholic Church that they had to offer contraceptive coverage in their insurance plans. I covered that little episode here.

Obama Inc. made a poorly camouflaged attempt to acquiesce without actually changing anything. Their proposal was to not require the Catholic Church, but to require their insurers to provide the contraception at no cost.

After 22.5 seconds of consideration, the Church came back with their response..NYET! In fact, not only NYET but if you force us, we’ll close our hospitals and other institutions.

Also recently, a study was released that showed some interesting early information on the reality of costs associated with Obamacare. You may remember President Obama telling us time and again how Obamacare would bend the cost curve on health care. Well, it turns out he was probably right. The problem is that the cost curve appears to be bent up not down, and at a very steep angle. According to this analysis and report, the first year costs for the high risk pool that covers people with preexisting conditions are running at a rate that is twice what was planned!

Finally, some had theorized that Obama may use the Blunt amendment as a way to let the Catholic Church off the hook while saving face on his administrations earlier edict. Unfortunately, the Blunt amendment was defeated on a mostly partly line vote today so the Catholic Church’s reason to close it’s facilities remains intact.

What are we to make of all this?

Some pundits, including the esteemed Ed Morrissey believe this is a high stakes game of chicken and that in the end, Obama will blink. I don’t buy it. Let’s look at the implications of the various actions I’ve previously noted.

When I looked at the premiums being charge for the high cost fund I noted that my family of 4 would be covered for about $800 per month. That may seem like a lot. However, for similar coverage from the high cost fund when we lived in Minnesota, we were paying nearly $1,500/month and that was two years ago. My point is that not only is the Obamacare high cost fund costing a lot more than it’s counterparts, it is also charging a lot less than its state counterparts. Last I looked, high costs and low revenue didn’t make a successful business. The outcome, if this is allowed to continue, is that insurance companies will be saddled with higher costs and lower revenues. This, over time, will force weaker insurance companies out of the business. Fewer insurance companies will lead to fewer choices which in turn, will lead to higher insurance costs.

I don’t think Obama will blink for the Catholic Church. As I noted earlier, he had the perfect opportunity to get a way out via the Blunt amendment. The amendment would have allowed church organizations to object and not provide certain coverages but would have required all other businesses to continue to provide whatever mandate Obama Inc. came up with. The tell for me is that this was voted down on nearly a party line vote. There are numerous Democrats in “swing” states who are up for election this year. There’s no way this is going to work in their favor. Had Obama wanted an out for the Catholic Church, there is no doubt in my mind that Harry Reid would have allowed just enough Democrats to vote for the amendment and “grudgingly” allowed it to pass. The fact that it didn’t means Obama is playing for keeps.

Finally, the Catholic Church threat. According to Morrissey, nearly 16% of admissions are served by Catholic hospitals. Nearly a third of those hospitals are in lesser served rural areas. If the Church does indeed pull their hospitals and other organizations, it will create a health care shortage of significant proportions in many areas of the U.S..

Contrary to the notion that Obama will blink, I think Obama is setting up exactly what he wants in health care.

If insurance costs skyrocket due to fewer providers and higher costs and access to care becomes scarcer due to a boycott by the Catholic Church, Obama, should he win a second election, will have the perfect pretense to declare a crisis and push, declare, impose or legislate for a national health care, single payer system…which is what he has wanted all along.

I will admit that it is possible that I’m wrong but I haven’t been wrong about much with this President. If I’m wrong, look for one of the following things to occur:

1. The Blunt amendment is brought back (it was tabled) and narrowly passes.
2. The Supreme Court rules that the health care mandate is unconstitutional before the election.

Any of these things could indicate that Obama won’t or isn’t able to eat the entire loaf. However, I don’t think either of these will happen. Rather, I think that Obama has planned this approach and as the Catholic Church threatened, if you listen closely you will hear Obama saying, “Thank you, Thank you very much!”

January 26, 2012

Since the last debate there has been media wrestling by the candidates or their spokespeople over who the real Reagan protege is. Is it:

Newt – “I taught Reagan about Reganomics”
or
Mitt – “I didn’t like anything about Reagan when he was President but he’s dead now.”
or
Paul – “Reagan should have left the Soviet Union alone. They never did anything to us!”
Or
Santorum – “Reagan? Yeah, I think I’ve heard of him.”

Once again, join Steve and me as we make fun out of these four candidates and the people who pose as intelligent enough to ask inane questions.

January 23, 2012

It’s a new state and that must mean a whole new set of debates. Steve and I will attempt to be on time…but we both have engagements tonight. If you bear with us, I promise you will have fun as we snark at each of the GOP candidates

December 23, 2011

In the first two chapters of Luke we read the Christmas story. Included in these chapters is the foretelling of John the Baptist, Mary’s conception and finally the birth of Jesus. Unique to Luke’s telling of the birth of Christ is the inclusion of three angelic visits.

The first visit, as told by Luke, was to the father of John the Baptist, Zechariah. The angel came to tell Zechariah that his wife Elizabeth, would bear a son. Zechariah and Elizabeth were both advanced in years so it was hard for Zechariah to believe that his wife and he would become parents. Zechariah was so incredulous at the thought of becoming a father that he actually argued with the angel:

Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” Luke 1:18

The third appearance is on the night of Jesus birth. This appearance occurred to shepherds who were working outside of Bethlehem:

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Luke 2:8-12

This angelic interaction was characterized by Luke as “terrifying.” If we think about it, it’s not hard to understand why the shepherds may have felt “terror.” Imagine standing out in the country, a long way from any population or roadways. Suddenly, not only does someone appear out of nowhere but that someone has an aura or other appearance around them that makes them look unlike any person you’ve ever seen before. It’s not hard to understand how at least the initial response, might be terror.

The other angelic appearance was to tell Mary that she was going to be the mother of the prophesied Savior:

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Luke 1:26-28

Initially, we are told Mary was “troubled” by the Angel’s statements but the visit ends with Mary’s confident statement of trust in God’s provision:

About now you’re asking why you’re reading this and why I’m reprinting Luke for a post.

My Bible study looked through these chapters of Luke over the past few weeks. As we looked through the passages it hit me how different, even though each of the angels were bringing a message directly from God, the reaction to each of the three angelic visits were. The Priest, the person who you could argue should have been most comfortable with the idea of an angel acting on behalf of God, argued with the angel. The Shepherds, arguably the bravest of those visited by the angels, were terrified. The young girl who was just told that she would be pregnant out of wedlock, an offense for which she could have been stoned to death, responded with complete confidence in the Angel’s statement and God’s plan.

As I contemplated these chapters, I thought about how my reactions to God are so much like those of the people visited by angels those many years ago.

There are many times where I argue with God. Oh, I don’t yell or shake my fist. By my actions, my thoughts and words, there are numerous times where I show or indirectly tell God that I’m not happy or satisfied with the plan He has for me. Can’t he move faster, why can’t XXXX happen, I need answers…NOW are all ways that I argue with God.

There are other times where I am terrified of God. Yes, I’m a Christian and yes, I know the saving grace of Jesus. But, regardless of the veneer of “a pretty good life,” I’m a sinner, and as Paul said “… the worst sinner.” I guess it is this recognition that confirms my Christianity but it is also this recognition that at times, leaves me terrified when my faith slips a bit and leaves me exposed to what my future would be without the saving grace of Jesus.

Finally, there are times when I can respond as Mary and say, “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Times when I am at peace and have confidence in the promises God has made to me as a believer. Admittedly, there have not been many of those times as of late. I won’t bore you with the details, let’s just say that a reason to be anxious seems to hide around nearly every corner I have turned the last few months.

Christmas is nearly here; the day when we celebrate the birth of Jesus and the promise of a different life if we believe and take him as our Savior. It’s also the time of the year where most of us spend time thinking about the year. I think about the blessings I’ve had and begin the process of gearing up for the new year.

After looking at the passages I’ve listed and doing some contemplating this past week, I know I have a choice to make as I enter the new year. I can chose the path Zechariah took and continue to argue with God about the things He has allowed in my life or, like the shepherds, I can chose to be terrified of things that don’t fit into my paradigm of how things should work. Or, like Mary, I can CHOOSE to exert my faith more and trust the God who has never left me and has fulfilled every promise He has ever made.

2,000 years ago, Mary made her choice as to how she would respond to God’s calling on her.

This Christmas, as we hear the Christmas story and reflect on our year, each of us will get a chance to choose how we will respond to God’s desire to be in our life.

Whereas turkey breast contains more protein and less fat and sodium than chicken breast,

Now therefore I hereby decree that a nameless, pictureless turkey be given a thorough plucking and a complete basting, and warmed to a sufficient temperature for human consumption, and further decree that turkey be thoroughly enjoyed until all of the meat be eaten.

November 6, 2011

This is the Emergency Blogging System. It has been activated because Steve forgot to tell you this last night. Unlike the EAS activation set to interrupt Rush Limbaugh later this week, this is not a test.

For those of you in the US (and not in those parts that don’t observe Daylight Saving), Daylight Saving Time ended at 2 am local time. If you have a WordPress blog (whether it is on WordPress.com, a WordPress stand-alone, or WordPress MU – this includes Blogivists and Conservablogs), and you had the time changed for Daylight Savings, you need to change it back to Standard Time (Central UTC -6, Mountain UTC -7, Eastern UTC -5, Pacific UTC -8, and check your clock for other locales). To do so, go into your wp-admin panel, select “Settings”, and under the “General Settings” page that pops up, select the right time zone. Don’t forget to hit “save” when you’re done.

Again, this is not a test. Had this been a test, you wouldn’t have been given official news, instructions or information. This concludes this broadcast of the Emergency Blogging System.

September 30, 2011

I’m actually surprised that California isn’t the first one out of the gate with the latest effort to make marriage no more consequential than a cell-phone contract. From Reuters:

Mexico City lawmakers want to help newlyweds avoid the hassle of divorce by giving them an easy exit strategy: temporary marriage licenses.

Leftists in the city’s assembly — who have already riled conservatives by legalizing gay marriage — proposed a reform to the civil code this week that would allow couples to decide on the length of their commitment, opting out of a lifetime.

The minimum marriage contract would be for two years and could be renewed if the couple stays happy. The contracts would include provisions on how children and property would be handled if the couple splits.

Why 2 years? It’s because in Mexico City, the average marriage lasts as long as a cell-phone contract. There’s no word on what the early cancellation fee will be, or if it will be pro-rated if one makes it past the first year.

August 20, 2011

Following his most recent campaign tour through the Midwest, the Divider and Agitator in Chief is going on vacation. Oh, but don’t call this a real vacation as the Divider and Agitator in Chief will be working hard while hanging out on Martha’s Vineyard.

If you hadn’t noticed, the economy isn’t doing so well these days. It’s apparent that the Divider and Agitator in Chief has noticed the poor economy. Just before going on vacation to the Vineyard, he announced that he will make a serious policy speech addressing his ideas on what should be done to get job creation going right after his vacation he spends some time contemplating what should be done.

I’m glad the Divider and Agitator in Chief will be addressing the jobs issue. However, I’m getting really concerned about all that gray hair he opportunistically sports. Michelle says he has earned everyone of those gray hairs, I can only imagine it’s because he worries so much and works so hard for us. As a heart attack and bypass survivor, I want to do my part to keep our Divider and Agitator in Chief’s stress in a safe range. To that end, I offer the President the following advice for his “jobs creation speech” so that he can rest, relax and play golf while he’s on vacation at Martha’s Vineyard.

Are you ready? My idea is so simple I’m surprised The Divider and Agitator in Chief hasn’t come up with it before. Here’s what the Divider and Agitator in Chief should propose doing in his big speech:

NOTHING!

The problem this Divider and Agitator in Chief has is that like a two year old in a fine crystal store, everything he touches he breaks! Doing or touching anything at this point, will only result in higher unemployment because that is what every effort of his has resulted in. In fact, now that I think about it, if the Divider and Agitator in Chief really wanted to create jobs, the best thing he could do is UN DO damn near everything he has done since being in office!

OK, this is a hard concept for the Divider and Agitator in Chief. In fact, it’s probably a hard concept for damn near every government employee and elected official. They all think their jobs are “to do things.” No, dammit, get your fingers off and quit coming up with a new set of uncertainty to insert in the economy! See, I told you it was simple.

Still don’t understand? Let me give some specifics to the Divider and Agitator in Chief:

UN DO the restrictions and blocking on new fossil fuel exploration – how many jobs have we lost or sent away in the Gulf of Mexico? How many jobs could we have in ANWR or Colorado? How many additional mining jobs could we have if we quit running scared of our own shadow over coal? Turning loose our energy industry would not only increase jobs, it would decrease energy costs. Wow, a twofer on the first suggestion!

UN DO the EPAs undercover efforts to implement cap and trade by regulating carbon dioxide off the planet! Take a look at what’s happening in the utility industry. Major electrical generating companies are looking at shuttering plants because they’re too expensive to upgrade for the new regulations. Do you think any of these companies are hiring people for these plants? Only enough to eek by. If a plant is slated for closing, companies will get by on skeleton crews so that they don’t incur extra costs when it comes time to close the plant. Oh, and if you don’t think businesses across the country are concerned about the threat of increasing electrical costs and potential brown outs, you’re fooling yourself! All you need to do is look at Texas where they are already planning for brown outs as a result of the new regulations!

UN DO the NLRB’s rabid intensity against all jobs that are none union. How many jobs would begin in South Carolina alone or not uncreated or shipped overseas, if the NLRB quit trying to enforce all union all the time policies?

Oh, I could go on and on listing things that the Divider and and Agitator in Chief could UN DO but let me leave you just one last one:

Placebocare! UN DO it! I talk to a lot of senior business executives as a part of my work. The number one thing discussed as we look into the next year or two and the number one thing that has them tentative about the future is understanding the impact of Placebocare on their businesses. UN DOing this legislation alone would remove a huge overhang on the US business environment.

OK, there’s my idea. I hope this helps the Divider and Agitator in Chief have a more restful vacation time for planning his campaign his next year. It probably will be a part of his speech because look at the cool T-shirt I just received as a thank you:

August 13, 2011

Perhaps the best part of the late, great Badger Blog Alliance was the get-togethers the gang had at Benno’s Microbrew Tent at the Wisconsin State Fair. Much like the BBA itself, and frankly, the posts here while I was (mostly unsuccessfully) hunting walleye the past week, it sort of faded away. That fade was a shame because while Drinking Right is great, not everybody (cough…Wiggy…cough…Owen…cough…) can make it out on a Tuesday night.

Thankfully, Kevin Binversie is back in the land of cheese and beer full-time, and wanted to get the gang back together. The father of the BBA, Jib, has given his blessing, so it’s back.

The 2011 BBA State Fair Get Together is set for Sunday, August 14, around 1 pm at The Micro (or for those of you who haven’t been there yet this year, what was Benno’s Microbrew Tent). If memory serves, it’s at Second Street and Central AvenueIt’s right behind Benno’s on Central, so you can look for that, the Cousin’s Ampitheater sign, or Benno’s Micro Alley (the extension of First Street, which is at the north end of the cream puff building), conveniently near the New Berlin Lions Corn and the Super Slide. It’s the State Fair, so bring the family.

See you there.

Revisions/extensions (11:24 pm 8/13/2011) – Gave a better location after some recon, and bumped the post up to the top (originally posted at 8:42 am 8/10/2011).

July 27, 2011

After a several week “government shutdown” in Minnesota the recently passed budget has been celebrated as a great success for the tea party and other conservatives. Rush Limbaugh himself heralded the announcement by Governor Mark Dayton that he would accept the Repubilcan’s proposal as “Dayton caves!”

Admittedly, there is much to like of the new Minnesota budget: The total package is a bit under $36B as compared to a projected need of $39B, there are legislative changes that will give greater leverage for school districts to negotiate with teacher unions and several that will help to reduce the acceleration of growth for future budgets.

Unfortunately, there are also some things in the new Minnesota budget that are not good. To get the agreement, Republicans agreed to some one time revenue in the form of bonding a settlement from cigarette companies and most offensive, putting off payment of approximately $700M committed to schools that will force the schools to borrow until they get paid.

I’m told that the Republican leadership wanted the final budget to be $34B. Unfortunately, rather than leaving themselves room for negotiating, their original offer to Governor Dayton and the Democrats was $34B. Leadership was concerned about the MSM and Democrat meme that they were “cutting spending” when in fact they were increasing it from the previous budget. They thought that by offering $34B, they would be seen as “reasonable” and not have to fight for their principles. They were wrong.

Dayton promptly vetoed the $34B budget and demanded that any new budget must have tax increases. It was fairly obvious that Dayton was expecting and planning for a state government shutdown. Rather than hold pat, the Republicans immediately began negotiating and their negotiations were focused on adding revenue to increase the budget beyond the $34B.

Dayton rebuffed all of the Republican attempts to find a “compromise” and caused the government to shut down. After nearly three weeks, Dayton announced that he would accept the Republican’s last offer and “caved.” Unfortunately, the “cave” was at a number much higher than the Republicans wanted the budget to be and paid for in part, with “accounting tricks.”

Some would call the final budget the result of compromise, I wouldn’t be among them. Unfortunately for Minnesota taxpayers, the final budget was a result of poor negotiating by Republican leadership. Had they begun their negotiation at a number lower than what they were willing to accept or if they had caused Dayton to make major concessions before they found “new revenue”, the outcome could have been much better. In my opinion, the Republican leadership in Minnesota made critical errors and negotiated more against themselves than they did the Democrats.

Why am I outlining in a Wisconsin based blog, what happened in Minnesota, especially since I no longer live there? Because, what happened in Minnesota is exactly what is happening with John Boehner and DC Republicans.

In April, Paul Ryan set out a detailed roadmap for dealing with budget deficits including methods to deal with ever increasing entitlement costs. At the time, John Boehner endorsed the Ryan plan saying:

“In order to move forward I think Paul Ryan has set the bar in terms of the kinds of targets we need to meet and the kind of serious effort that is required given the deficit we have. I fully support Paul Ryan’s budget, including on Medicare.”

The “Ryan Plan” passed the House but was voted down in the Senate.

Roll forward to July and Boehner supported “Cut, Cap and Balance,” a bill that didn’t have a detailed budget but did provide for a combination of budget cuts and a balance budget amendment in exchange for an increase in the debt ceiling. On the day the House voted on CCB, Boehner said:

…(CCB is) the most responsible thing that we can do to address our problems today, and to address our problems long term.

Cut, cap and balance was killed by the Senate.

After CCB, Boehner tried “the grand bargain” with President Obama. Reportedly, that would have had $4T of reductions….until Obama threw a hissy fit and left.

Now Boehner is trying a paltry $1.2T of cuts which have been scored by the CBO as only $850B in cuts.

Boehner is now on record with supporting at least four and maybe as many as five or six different plans for dealing with the budget and at least indirectly, the debt limit. Rather than standing on one of these plans, Boehner has spent the last 2 weeks negotiating with anyone who will talk to him, Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Bo the dog, to find a solution for raising the debt limit. Every negotiation he enters further undercuts his credibility and resolve (if he really had any) to the only two plans (Ryan or CCB) that actually deal with our current situation in a way that doesn’t simply kick the can for some additional period of time.

The effect of Boehner’s “negotiations” have been not one iota of change from the Democrats. If anything, Obama has become more transfixed on raising taxes and Reid yelling “no” even louder. With all of his “negotiations,” it turns out that the only negotiating Boehner has been doing is with h

I’ve said numerous times that Boehner is no conservative. Worse, I’m not sure he is a whole lot better than Barack Obama. Boehner is unable to determine what he stands for and is even less willing to stand for it once he determines what it is that he does stand for. Boehner has been in Washington too long and is too committed to being a participant in the dance that is Washington politics rather than fighting for the principles that he purports to hold.

Washington operates under the false assumption that doing something, anything is always better than doing nothing. Boehner’s proposal for a debt limit increase is worse than doing nothing. John Boehner is about to but the period at the end of the sentence that will head our country into history as a banana republic.